1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors. More specifically, the present invention relates to electrical connectors with adjustable impedances.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrical connectors are used to place electrical devices, such as printed circuit boards, in communication with one another. An electrical connector includes electrical contacts or terminals adapted to transmit electrical signals to an electrical device or another electrical connector.
In some known electrical connectors, electrical contacts are supported on each end by one of a first connector body and a second connector body. The electrical contacts are often arranged in an array, with rows and columns of electrical contacts. An example of an electrical connector with contacts arranged in an array and supported by first and second connector bodies is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,371,129, incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Conventional electrical connectors are typically designed to be tuned to a specific impedance. Accordingly, if different impedance profiles are needed for an electrical device, a different electrical connector is required for each particular impedance profile of the electrical device, so that each electrical connector can perform optimally at the necessary impedance profile of the electrical device. Thus, according to conventional approaches, many different electrical connectors must be purchased or manufactured for electrical devices that require different electrical profiles, which results in significant material and labor costs.
Furthermore, conventional electrical connectors typically only provide a single impedance profile, within manufacturing tolerances, for all of the electrical contacts of the electrical connector. That is, in order to apply different impedance profiles to certain electrical contacts in a single electrical connector, an electrical connector would have to be designed to have different impedance profiles in different portions of the array of electrical contacts of the electrical connector.
However, such electrical connectors require complex construction and need careful choices of materials, making such a conventional approach cumbersome and costly to manufacture. Moreover, each electric connector only provides the specific impedance profile for which it is designed, and thus cannot be readily adapted to different electrical devices that require different impedance profiles. In addition, a different electrical connector must be designed and manufactured for each different impedance profile that is required.